Five For Friday June 20th

Is it June 20th already?? Where is summer going?? Ahhh.

Anyway. Sorry I have been awol this week. I was out of town at a teacher conference. But, after a day of recovery, I am BACK. And linking up with Doodle Bugs for my favorite random linky- Five for Friday. Here's my random.

I spent Sunday through Wednesday in Little Rock (I live in Arkansas...that's our capitol....here's your Southern geography lesson for the day) at a teaching conference called the Comprehensive Literacy Institute. It was hosted by the UALR Center for Literacy. UALR is the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. At this place, there are some really smart folks. The main person is Dr. Linda Dorn. She is the author of the books Teaching for Deep Comprehension and Apprenticeship in Literacy.

At this Institute, they work with schools to implement their approach to literacy. Through their approach, you work to make your entire literacy curriculum and workshops integrated. That is the big word. Integrated. Everything works together. Reading, writing, language, speaking, listening- connected. Their ideas are incredible and backed by some serious research and hard work. I highly recommend checking their work out. Or at least the free resources from their website. Ha.

This was my second year to attend the Institute, and though much of the content was familiar to me, there were still many "ah ha" moments. I learned so much about mentor texts, vocabulary, and literature discussion groups. And got lots of ideas to take back with me, that I am sure I will share with you at some point :) So that is my number one. 

P.S. I am not being paid or sponsored or obligated or anything to mention their books or website. I just like them a lot and learned so much from their ideas. Okay? Okay.

 

While I was out of town, I got to stay at a fancy hotel, eat out, shop, and watch dumb TV. And I got paid to go. So it was awesome, basically. 

This is me going to use the cool workout room and sweat all over the fancy elliptical. It was fun. And this is my cool new shirt that I got from Target. I like it. I posted this on my Instagram and Katie King from First Grade Jungle commented on it and followed me. ****BRB I'm fangirling****

So that just about made my week. 

P.S. I don't actually know how to "twerk". I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it even if I did. Okay. 

While in the "big city" we went to a teacher store. I love teacher stores. Sadly, Small-Town-Suzy over here has to drive at least an hour away to go to one. Walmart is my teacher store, mkay? So I was excited. I bought this really big piece of notebook paper. It's "wipe off" so you can use dry erase markers and I don't even have to laminate it. Love that. I'm going to use it to show my fourthies *exactly* how I want some things done this year. We have a document camera that I use sometimes to do this, but it's still hard for them to really see sometimes. So I got this.

I have also been on the hunt for some buckets. Yes, more buckets. The teacher's best friend I think. Anywho, after looking at Walmart, Target, and another town's Dollar Tree, found these gems. At my Dollar Tree. Take that, big cities! They actually had so many choices that it took me forever to choose. I think the cashier lady thought I was a weirdo. Don't care. I got my buckets. I am going to use these for my Guided Reading groups. Each group gets a bucket. Everything is all separate and organized. That's the plan. Cute colors though, right?

P.S. That's construction paper and colored pencils inside. I love dollar stores. And yes, I'm already buying classroom supplies. I'm a weirdo okay? Okay.

Also, I  made something. Woop! These are my new library pillows. I am saving the big fancy post about these for Monday Made It (because I never make anything and therefore never participate), but here's the basics. I needed new library seating. Beanbag chairs are randomly very expensive. I had pillows. I made new ones. And they only cost me $23. Booyah. Check back Monday for the "deets". 

P.S. I do not really say "deets" in real life. That was a joke. Don't judge me. 

And last of all, library labels. I really liked my library labels last year, and so of course, in true teacher nature, I redid them. Ha. I've added like a million more categories and a new KG font. And I didn't stop there. I made zebra ones!! In rockstar colors. Now, I do not have a rockstar room. But I think they are awesome. And I love these labels. I kept thinking of ways to make these labels work in my room. Seriously. They won't. But I wish they would. Cause I think they are adorable. So if you are in the market for some library labels with LOTS of category options, I have two options for you at the moment. Hopefully more to come.

So there's my five for the week! Go link up at Doodle Bugs and read some more :)

Happy Friday!